The Odd Squad
by AliceinChaos
Summary: AU/ This story parallels my other story Viewed Through a Broken Mirror. It is an exploration of the unusual friendship between Paige, Aria and Mona. I
1. Prologue

(This is day 2 of my 7 postings in 7 days exercise)

a/n There is so much more afoot in my dysphoric vision of Rosewood than can be coherently addressed in a single story. The Odd Squad focuses on the unlikely relationship between Paige, Aria and Mona, which is referenced in my other, AU story Viewed Through a Broken Mirror (VTBM). This won't be a particularly long saga, but it is important for me to get it down here and clear my head. My writing style is very Pynchon-esque and story telling heavily influenced by Mario Puzo (The Godfather, etc.).

Prologue:

Aria Montgomery walked into her classroom on the first day of third grade wearing a green and white striped skirt with a purple-on-grey star-spangled shirt and her favorite red hi-top Converse sneakers. A couple of girls at the front of the classroom raised their eyebrows but Aria ignored them. She was used to the haters. She quickly scanned the room of name tags on the doubled-up desks as well as the faces that accompanied said names. Honing in on the center of the room, Aria surveyed whom she would have the honor of sharing personal space with this year. There was Nikki Malloy, kind of short and stocky with shoulder-length brown hair and pretty eyes, Joel McCreedy, lanky, tall, but otherwise nondescript, an Average Joe. Beside Joe was Aria's ex-boyfriend Noel Kahn, who appeared to be putting his infamous moves on a girl Aria didn't recognize. The girl was relatively tall with greenish eyes wearing a green flannel shirt under a brown corduroy jumper, her dirty blonde hair was pulled back in a neat ponytail. Aria knew Noel's moves all-too-well. _Last year, at the second grade picnic, he had used them on her. He had casually leaned on a bleacher, told her she had a pretty dress and asked to hold her hand. The hand-holding lasted through the rest of the picnic and even continued the next day, the last day of class. By the end of the day Noel had managed to steal 4 kisses, 1 on the cheek and 3 on the lips, without getting caught. The Kahn family went away on vacation immediately after school ended and by the time they returned to Rosewood Noel had grown bored with Aria. It was a short, intense relationship._

Somehow, though, this new girl seemed immune to Noel's advances.

The bell rang and the teacher, Miss Floden, a petite woman with hair down to her butt, called everyone to order. The principal then came over the loudspeaker with some encouraging words about the upcoming school year, then led the school in the Pledge of Allegiance. After the school pledge, Miss Floden introduced herself and showed the class her engagement ring (which was so gaudy it could've come from one of the quarter machines outside the pizza place). In a few short months she would be Mrs. Somebody. By that point Aria had stopped paying attention as she excitedly read the name plates on the desks and realized this was her lucky year. The unfamiliar name next to Aria Montgomery was Paige McCullers rather than Joel McCready, who always smelled like B.O.

Aria got along with the intriguing new girl Paige right off the bat. Paige just moved to town from a town called Copiague, on western Long Island with her mother, she was an only child. The morning passed along rather quickly until the elementary kids were whisked away to the cafeteria. Rectangular tables were lined end-to-end to create four long rows – one for 1st graders, one for 2nd graders, one for 3rd graders and of course one for 4th graders.

As Aria and Paige made their way to the cafeteria, Paige eyed Aria's purple lunch box warily. "What are you staring at?!" Aria exclaimed with exaggerated embarrassment. Then indignantly, "I'm a picky eater and school lunch food is gross. Plus all those old ladies wear funny hairnets and have lipstick on their teeth."

Paige giggled as she explained her silly imagination, "I didn't mean anything bad, it's just really unusual, like maybe it's used to hold the altar you to sacrifice tomatoes and carrots before eating."

"Just because I don't dress and eat like everyone else doesn't mean I'm some sort of witch," Aria replied with a hurt expression. She loved herself for following her own path.

"My favorite thing about you is that you don't dress and act like everyone else," Paige said, grabbing Aria's free hand. "Will you be my best friend?"

"I would be honored," Aria beamed as she squeezed Paige's soft hand.

* * *

After they walked into the cafeteria, Aria pointed towards the far corner of the room where there was a half-empty table. "I'll go sit there and save you a seat."

"Ok, sounds good," Paige dropped her new best friend's hand and headed towards the end of the lunch line. Standing just in front of Paige was a pudgy blond girl talking to a taller, slimmer dark-haired girl.

"Hi,' the blond girl said. "You must be the new girl that just moved in next door to our friend Alison's house. I'm Hanna, and this is Spencer," she said pointing towards the dark-haired girl.

"I'm Paige, moved to town a couple months ago but I haven't met any neighbors named Alison," she said, offering her hand, which Hanna viewed skeptically.

Spencer shook Paige's hand as she stared down Hanna. "It's nice to meet you. You probably haven't met Ali yet because she spent most of her summer visiting her cousins in New Jersey."

The lunch line was moving quickly, and the options for the first day of school were chicken nuggets or veggie burger with corn or peas and mashed potatoes or baked French fries. Drink options were skim milk, 1% milk or 1% chocolate milk. Paige chose chicken nuggets, corn and French fries with skim milk.

After paying for their lunch, Hanna and Spencer waited for Paige to bring her to their lunch table to meet Alison. Though Alison was not a picky eater, eating school lunches seemed to peasant-like for her haughty taste. As luck would have it, Alison was seated near Aria, so Paige would have her best friend nearby if things didn't go well. Alison DiLaurentis had a reputation for selective friendships and manipulation; if you got on her good side you'd be set for life, as long as you never disrespected her.

"Alison," Hanna said excitedly. "Meet Paige! She's the girl who moved in next door."

Alison squinted her eyes, studying Paige. "I know who she is," Alison replied. "Welcome to Rosewood, have a seat with the cool kids today." Despite her cold demeanor she was trying to be friendly, Alison truly had 'resting bitch face;' Alison both admired and feared Paige. Paige seemed easy going, was fairly attractive, and grew up just outside NYC so Alison thought it best to lay down the law right away to keep Paige from showing her up. Alison would be friendly to Paige and win over her loyalty before Paige knew what happened.

"Thanks Alison, it's nice to finally meet you. Thanks for the offer, but my new best friend Aria is saving me a seat over there," Paige pointed a few seats down from Alison.

"Best friend?" Alison scoffed. "Having friends like that will put you on the fast track to Loserville. Aria is the weirdest person in the entire school. It's unfortunate we didn't meet before the first day of school, considering we live next door to each other, I could have given you a run-down of who's who and prevented this awkwardness. I can break up with Aria for you if you want."

"Uhm, thanks but no thanks," Paige said fuming, as she looked at Aria who was staring down at her PB&J sandwich with tears in her eyes. "I can pick my own friends."

Paige walked over and sat down next to Aria, placing her tray on the table in front of her. She put a consoling arm around the petite brunette and whispered, "you're not weird."

Aria turned her tear-stained face to Paige and smiled. "Thank you. No one has ever stood up for me, and Alison has been mean to me since kindergarten, when the teacher always liked my paintings better than hers."

"Remember when I said one of my favorite things about you is that you don't dress and act like everyone else? I meant that, and my word for that is _eccentric_ ," Paige spoke with genuine care.

"Thanks Paige," Aria beamed again. "I like the word eccentric!"


	2. Enter Mona

On the first day of freshman year, Aria woke up with butterflies in her stomach. It had been two weeks since she got to spend any quality time with her best friend. Aria felt that she hadn't seen Paige since they got back from the Montgomery family vacation in Lake George; she had been busy with two-a-day field hockey practices and her controlling father Nick McCullers was growing suspicious of their friendship. Aria had spent the last week learning to use the dark room at Hollis from a summer research student and developed all the photos she took with the vintage camera her parents had gotten her for her birthday in May. Her favorite picture was the one of Paige diving off the end of the long dock that jutted out into the lake.

As soon as she got to school, Aria ran across the school lawn to where she saw Paige, excited to show her the photos she developed from their trip to Lake George two weeks ago. When she reached Paige, Aria noticed her preoccupied by a dark-haired, preppy-looking girl standing off to the side of the crowd of people. The girl in question looked familiar, kind of like someone she'd seen at the Brew last weekend.

"Hey Paige," Aria greeted her friend, bringing her out of her trance. "Do you know her?" she added pointing towards the dark-haired girl.

"Oh, hey Aria," Paige turned when she heard her name called, and hugged her petite friend, noticing she looked particularly cute that morning. "Uhm, no, I haven't introduced myself. I'm too nervous." Paige was beginning to struggle with unfamiliar feelings that arose when faced with attractive dark-haired girls.

Aria reached over and gently tapped the new girl's elbow. "Hey, I don't think we've met before. I'm Aria, and this is Paige." Paige nodded and waved weakly.

The preppy-looking girl turned to face Aria and smiled. "My name's Mona. Mona Vanderwaal."

"Are you new to Rosewood?" Aria asked.

"No, I've lived here all my life but I was home-schooled up through eighth grade," Mona replied off-handedly, before recognizing Aria's face. "I think I saw you last weekend at the Brew."

"Yes! I knew you looked familiar," Aria said excitedly. "Who's your homeroom teacher?"

"Uhm," Mona looked down at her schedule of classes. "Looks like Mr. Jurkowski, room 101. How 'bout you?"

"I've got O'Neil, up on the second floor, but Paige has Jurkowski," Aria turned to look at her friend, wondering what was making her so nervous this morning.

"Yep, I've got Jurkowski. Which lunch are you in?" Paige addressed Mona.

Mona looked down at her schedule again, trying to decipher what her day entailed. "It looks like I'm in C-block lunch."

"Ooohh, great! So are Paige and I! We can all sit together!" Aria exclaimed.

Aria seemed weirdly excited this morning, Paige thought as she smiled at her friend's adorable personality. The moment of adoration was cut short by the nails-on-a-chalkboard voice that pierced through her brain. "Look who it is!" Alison DiLaurentis' voice screeched condescendingly behind her. "The odd couple has made a new friend."

Spencer and Hanna stood behind the self-proclaimed Queen of Rosewood and dutifully laughed at their dear leader's bitchiness. Turning to face Alison, Paige gently wrapped her arm around Aria to ease the tension the petite brunette felt from the source of the comment. Aria knew by now she could stand up to Alison if she had to but she honestly preferred it when Paige stood up for her. There was just something about Paige, the way she carried herself, or spoke, or even smelled, that made Aria feel safe. _No, that's not the word,_ she thought. _Happy? Secure? Confident? Content?_ That must be it, she thought, Paige made Aria feel content - though her thoughts were cut short when their new friend entered the conversation with her boxing gloves on.

"Alison DiLaurentis?" Mona asked with a wicked grin, addressing the bleach-blond, perfectly tanned beauty who felt the world revolved around her. "I've been looking forward to meeting you after all the good things I've heard." Mona spat on the ground in front of Alison, then turned and linked arms with Aria and Paige before walking towards the school.

Alison just stood there, mouth agape, fuming. Nobody in their right mind treated Alison _Fucking_ DiLaurentis with that sort of disrespect. Spencer and Hanna were dumbfounded as well, they had never seen nor could ever imagine someone treating their leader that way.

"Oh my god," Aria said in amused bewilderment. "I cannot believe you just did that. Alison is going to make your life a living hell."

"No way," Mona replied coolly. "If she knows what's good for her she'll just leave me and both of you alone. Looks like the Odd Couple has just become the Odd Squad," she said with a broad smile. Somehow the way Mona said Odd Squad made both Paige and Aria feel content. High school was already off to a great start and they hadn't even entered the building.

* * *

The morning bell rang, tolling the beginning of the new school year, and telling students to get the hell into their homerooms. Aria waved to Paige and Mona at the base of the stairs as she headed up towards her homeroom in 220. Desks were in alphabetical order and she was in despair to find herself in the middle of a room also home to Alison DiLaurentis and Spencer Hastings. Her first-day-of-school excitement was officially gone. Facing Alison first thing every day for an entire year was the last thing she wanted.

Luckily homeroom only lasted 5 minutes or so, long enough for Mr. O'Neil, a short guy with dark hair who coached wrestling, to take attendance, followed by the pledge of allegiance and announcements on the loudspeaker from the vice principal Mr. Eisele.

As the students filed out to first period, Alison waited for Aria and whispered menacingly "your new friend better watch herself or I make all your lives a living hell this year," referring of course to Aria and Paige along with Mona.

* * *

Paige turned to Mona as they walked into homeroom together. "What exactly have you heard about Alison? It's only your first day here and in the 6 years I've lived in Rosewood I have never seen you. What is it you do for fun?"

"Well, my mom's family is from Connecticut so I've spent most summers there, for as long as I can remember," Mona began. "I have a few friends in York County, PA who were also home-schooled, so I used to go on field trips with them. I can churn butter with my eyes closed and both hands tied behind my back," she chuckled at her own joke before continuing. "Our house is near the outskirts of town and my parents like to keep to themselves. My dad teaches math at Hollis, which is almost too much human interaction for him, and my mom was a stay-at-home mom who home-schooled me."

"But that doesn't answer my question about how you know about Alison," Paige pried, intrigued by the new girl's intrepid eccentric style. Paige certainly had a thing for eccentricity.

"I haven't actually heard that much, just the DiLaurentis name whispered between my parents behind closed doors and when I asked them about it, my dad told me it was nothing to worry about, but to keep my distance. He never explained himself any further. My dad went to grad school in Russia, and he gets weirdly paranoid about things. My mom and I have just learned to deal with it and not ask too many questions," Mona meandered through her answer then drove home what exactly it was that gave her the urge to spit on the ground at Ali's feet. "Then when I heard the condescension in her voice and saw hear bleach-blond hair I could tell she was a little bit too full of herself. That girl needs to be taken down a peg or two."

"Yeah, Alison can be a huge bitch. I can remember my first day at Rosewood, I was in 3rd grade, and Alison basically made me a one-time offer for friendship or be labelled a loser. I turned her down after she made fun of Aria for being 'weird.' Aria was the first cool person I met, and we became best friends immediately," Paige told Mona. "Aria has never been one to follow the crowd, which is one of my favorite things about her, but somehow Alison gets under her skin, making her unsure of herself. I really hate that Alison has the power to make Aria feel somehow unworthy."

"Well I guess we'll just have to find out how good Alison is at taking all the condescending bitchiness she dishes out," Mona said with a twinkle in her eye.

The desks in Jurkowski's homeroom were set in standard protocol alphabetical order. Mona walked towards the back right corner of the room and Paige almost walked face-first into Hanna Marin as Hanna walked past Paige to take the desk in front of hers.

"Watch it, Sasquach!" Hanna barked, trying to emulate Ali, however the less-than-bleached blond only sounded foolish.

"Easy, Marin, Sasquach here is good with spit balls and sits directly behind you," Paige replied with a smile, pointing her thumb back at herself. Hanna had practically zero confidence when Alison was not around to stand up for her. Mona overheard the exchange and chuckled to herself, wondering how in the world somebody could fall under another person's spell the way Hanna seemed to be under Alison's. Mona loved mischief and couldn't wait to give the blond monster a taste of her own medicine this year.


	3. Honeyfeet

On Friday of the first week of class, the field hockey team had a home game against Crestwood High. Crestwood was not a team to take lightly, and Paige was nervous. She had taken a chance as goalie when no one else stepped up (who in their right mind would want to stand in front of a cage and have hard balls wailed at them as fast as the offender could hit). Paige had spent the first few weeks of practice working solely with the Varsity goalie, Wendy Jo, but still lacked the confidence she would be successful. The sweep, Jess Cork, was a very skilled sophomore that just barely missed the Varsity cut-off. Spencer was starting left midfield on JV and Alison, of course, made Varsity, starting center forward.

Game day was brutally hot, and Paige was not looking forward to donning the chest protector, padded shorts, enormous leg pads and covered-face helmet. She had swamp ass within minutes. As Paige walked onto the field to warm up after the varsity team narrowly beat out Crestwood 2-1, she was surprised to hear people chanting her name. She turned to face the stands and saw her two best friends holding big signs that read Go Paige! and We love you Paige! Jess offered Paige a stick tap and said "You got this, Paige. You already have a fan club," with a wink.

After the JV game, a 3-0 shut-out, members of both the JV and Varsity squads hurled themselves onto a fully-suited Paige in a congratulatory pile-up for a job well done in her first game against a formidable opponent. Alison, however, just walked past and made a crude comment about how Paige must be living her dirty little dream, covered with sweaty women. "Too bad everyone has their clothes on, Pig Skin." Alison had given Paige that nickname in 8th grade when Paige roughly tackled Alison during a flag football game in gym class.

"Come on Spencer," Alison continued a little more loudly, "let's go change before the lesbos move their orgy to our locker room." Spencer couldn't believe the audacity of her friend, but followed her dutifully, as always.

When they got into the empty locker room, Alison opened her locker and changed out of her cleats, shin guards and jersey leaving her in just a tank top and kilt. Alison _knew_ she looked good, and looked forward to teasing the football players when they walked past them on their way out. Spencer awkwardly changed out of her kilt into pants, befuddled at her best friend's total confidence. The rest of the team filtered in slowly, everyone amped up about beating Crestwood, and congratulating Paige on her first shut-out. Alison shook her head in disgust at the team's support of Paige as she absent-mindedly pulled out her flip flops – the kind with the raised rubber beads. The locker room went silent as they heard Alison let out a blood-curdling scream.

"What the hell is in my sandals?" she shrieked, jumping up and down and pointing at some sort of sticky liquid oozing out between the massaging beads of her sandals.

Spencer bent down to get a closer look. The gooey liquid had attracted flies, and as Spencer leaned in she caught the sweet aroma of honey.

"Who the fuck put honey in my sandals? Pig Skin, I'm gonna kill you!" Alison continued hysterical shrieking.

"Alison, you were the last one out of the locker room," Spencer pointed out nervously. Alison had spent waaaaay too much time focusing on her hair and make-up before the game. "And we were the first ones back in after the game, so it couldn't have been Paige. Besides, it's kind of hard to sneak away wearing the goalie pads." Spencer may have been a little afraid of Ali, but she was absolutely devoted to logic.

"God Spencer, who's side are you on?" Ali said in a huff as she picked up her sandals and stormed out of the locker room in bare feet. She was so angry she didn't notice two small brunettes sitting on the steps just outside the door to the locker room.

Mona turned to a mildly terrified Aria whispering excitedly "see, I told you it would work!"

* * *

Later that evening, after Paige cleaned up after her successful game, she met Aria and Mona at the arcade. None of the trio was particularly interested in the cliquish culture surrounding high school football games, even though Paige was a devout Eagles fan, watching the games faithfully each fall Sunday with her dad. Aria's mom dropped off Aria and Mona, and planned to pick up all three girls at the end of the night for a slumber party in the Montgomery's basement.

Aria had claimed the booth closest to the skee ball machine, her favorite game, and there was a frosty mug of root beer waiting for Paige when she walked in. Before Paige had the opportunity to open her mouth, Aria had leapt out of her seat to give Paige a giant hug.

"Congrats Paige! You were fantastic today!" Aria gushed excitedly, as if she hadn't already said those exact same words right after the game.

Mona observed her new friends curiously, wondering whether there might be something more than just friendship going on, but put her suspicions aside as she too congratulated Paige with another hug. _It's probably just their personalities_ she thought, musing on how the Amish girls she knew from home schooling were on the opposite spectrum of touchy-feely. She'd only been in public school for a week, so there was a lot for Mona to process.

"Thanks Aria," Paige smiled as she reluctantly unwound herself from her friend's grasp. "Have you two been waiting long?"

"No, we just got here about 5 minutes ago," Mona replied. "We were planning on waiting for you before ordering pizza." Of course they weren't necessarily waiting for her opinion, Paige always indulged Aria's request for all veggie pizza, but rather didn't want the pizza to arrive before Paige.

Aria motioned to their waitress to let her know they were ready to order. "Large Veggie?" Amelia asked when she arrived. It was not their first evening eating pizza at the arcade.

"Yes please," Aria replied shyly to the tall auburn-haired waitress from whom they ordered most frequently. Aria's shyness around their waitress struck Paige as a bit unusual for her typically bubbly friend.

"Coming right up," Amelia replied to Aria with a smile, then turning to her left, "congrats on your game today Paige. Aria told me you 'totally kicked ass'." Paige glanced at her smaller friend as a smile crept across her lips, wondering why Aria's cheeks were flaming with embarrassment.

"Thanks Amelia," Paige replied before turning fully back to her friends. "Last one to the skee ball machine has to eat all of Aria's crusts!" The trio rose simultaneously and Mona made it to the machine first, as Aria pulled on Paige's shirt fruitlessly trying to gain advantage.

As the balls came crashing down after Aria put in her quarters, Mona casually brought up the honey-foot incident. "So I guess you heard about someone putting honey in Ms. DiLaurentis' sandals during the game today?"

Paige turned with a look of confusion as Aria began giggling uncontrollably and Mona tried unsuccessfully to stifle her laughter as well. "Oh my god, no, how did you do it?" Paige was astonished by their new friend's boldness.

"She had it coming to her. Her superficial sweetness is just a manipulative ploy for attention. What goes around comes around I guess," Mona responded nonchalantly. Truth be told, even she was surprised at how flawlessly she and Aria had carried out their plan.

Then, upon hearing Aria's screech, Paige and Mona turned to see their friend pointing excitedly at the score board, to show them she had made the 1000 point shot in the upper left corner.

"Good job little buddy," Paige responded by putting her arm around Aria and squeezing her shoulder shoulder tenderly.

"Impressive," Mona said, wondering how such a petite girl could generate as much excitement as Aria did.

After a few games of skee ball their pizza arrived and the girls dove right in to the no-frills style of arcade pizza. Mona particularly underwhelmed with the greasy arcade pizza, especially considering her mother made the best homemade pizza west of New York City .

"If you girls like pizza, you _have_ to come over to my house next weekend for my mom's homemade pizza. She learned from her Italian friends' mother in New York City when she was in college. It'll knock your socks off!" Mona said proudly. Her parents had been nervous about Mona going to public school, but their trepidation was assuaged by Mona's excited description of Paige and Aria after her first day. Mona put on a calm demeanor, but she was much more excitable than she'd admit to anyone. Heck, she could probably give Aria a run for her money if she let her walls down, but she'd inherited quite a bit of her father's paranoia over the years and her personal walls were quite sturdy.

"Sure!" Aria practically yelled across the table. "I can't wait to see your house!"

"That sounds great," Paige agreed. "I'd love to have some real pizza." Paige was only 8 when her father uprooted the family from Long Island after the dangerous race riots in Copiague, but she still remembered the hand-tossed, thin crust covered with robust sauce, fresh mozzarella cheese and pepperoni like it was yesterday. Aria's parents were perfectly content to live their lives fully in Rosewood, so she had never been exposed to _real_ pizza. And of course pepperoni was out of the question with Aria, but Paige didn't really mind. Ever since that first day of third grade, when Alison had reduced Aria to tears right in front of her eyes, Paige swore she'd do everything in her power to prevent Aria's sadness.

After the girls finished their pizza they played a couple games of foosball; Aria was thrilled to have Mona on her team and Paige enjoyed the extra challenge. Soon after Ella called Aria to say she was waiting outside, the girls piled in the car with Aria talking a mile-a-minute about her money skee ball shot, her upper hand at foosball thanks to Mona, and then about getting to try "real" pizza next weekend at Mona's house.

"I'm glad you girls had a good time," Ella responded with a smile. "Hopefully you won't keep the rest of us up all night." Aria had always been a high-energy kid, but this week she'd seemed especially excitable.

"We'll keep her contained Mrs. Montgomery," Paige offered, chuckling yet again at her adorable friend's excitement. "Promise."

"I have no doubts, Paige," Ella replied genuinely. Paige seemed to be the yin to Aria's yang, always able to balance her out. "You looked great out there at your game this afternoon."

"Thank you," Paige was mildly stunned, "I didn't know you were there."

"I had to leave early to pick up Mike from his lacrosse practice across town, but I caught most of the game. Your parents are really proud of you," Aria's mom replied. She knew Paige's parents were good people, they weren't particularly warm-and-fuzzy and offered extra support to her daughter's best friend whenever she could.

At the Montgomery's house Mike was upstairs in his room playing loud music and most likely reading his comic books, while Byron sat on the couch in the living room grading some term papers.

"Hello girls," Byron set his red pen on the coffee table and looked up from the paper he was marking. "How was the arcade?"

"Hi Mr. Montgomery," Paige began, "it was fun. Aria had an impressive skee ball run today," dropping off as she saw Aria about to burst at the seams.

"I made a 1000-point shot!"

"That's great," Byron smiled though a bit half-heartedly, "sounds like everyone needs a good night sleep tonight." Then yawning for effect, " _everyone_ , especially me. Don't be too loud tonight girls." Byron hugged Aria and kissed her on the cheek before trudging up the stairs to bed.

Meanwhile, Ella walked over to the large chest behind the couch to retrieve a few blankets and pillows. "Here you go girls, there's some 7-up in the fridge and snacks in the cupboard if you'd like," she said overloading Aria's short arms with the stack of slumber-party sleeping materials.

Paige grabbed the top three over-sized blankets, leaving Aria's arms full of only the pillows and led the girls to the basement. The Montgomery basement was finished, with soft carpeting and wood-paneled walls, the perfect space for a slumber-party. Paige dropped the blankets in the middle of the floor and Mona helped arrange them. The two smaller blankets were set up side-by-side for sleeping on, and a big blue down comforter that would cover all three girls was laid on top of the bottom bedding. Aria tossed the pillows at the base of the couch and picked up the remote for the Smart TV.

"What do you two want to watch?" Aria asked, flicking the TV on to Netflix. "Nothing scary though."

"Oh man," Paige pretended to be upset, exaggeratedly dropping her shoulders and letting out a huge sigh.

"We could watch Black Swan," Mona offered, figuring the protagonist's psychological dance with duality, and the very nature of reality, would appeal to Aria's eccentric side. "It's about a ballet dancer."

"Ooooh, that sounds lovely!" Aria plie'd with a grand flourish of her arms before she lost her not-so-sure footing and came barreling down between Paige and Mona, who each stuck their arms out to catch her before she hit the floor.

"How 'bout we just watch the movie rather than try to out-perform the stars?" Mona chuckled as she let her arms drop after straightening Aria, who seemed to linger in Paige's arms just a little longer than necessary.

"Oh alright," Aria continued her dramatics. "But first – do either of you want anything to eat or drink?" Ella Montgomery was big on hospitality and had conditioned Aria well to be attentive to their guests' potential needs.

"Uhm, I'd like to use the bathroom," Mona spoke up, "is there one nearby?"

"Of course," Paige pointed her in the direction of the basement bathroom, very familiar with the Montgomery's house having spent so much time there over the years. The McCuller's basement didn't hold a candle to the Montgomery's when it came to sleep-overs. Of course, Paige didn't have a pesky younger brother to get in their hair, so it was a trade-off.

"So, 7-up and pretzels?" Aria knew asking about specific drinks and snacks rather than the ambiguous umbrella terms made guests more comfortable asking for or accepting food & drink offerings. "I think I might also know where my mom hid some M&M's."

"Sounds great, I'll help," Paige replied as she led Aria up the stairs. The two girls picked out three cans of pop, a bag of pretzels and a big bag of M&M's Ella had hidden in a bowl in the very back of the fine china cabinet. Aria and Paige returned with their loot just as Mona walked out of the bathroom.

"Are you ready to have your mind blown?" Mona asked, excited to see Aria's reaction to one of her favorite movies of all time. Mona wasn't exactly sure how Paige would like it, but if Aria liked it Paige would at least pretend to like it. With time Mona was determined to get through Paige's defenses, and it seemed that protecting Aria's happiness was her biggest defense mechanism because she could ignore her own personal insecurities for once and focus on something external.

The three friends sat on the couch for the opening scene of Black Swan and unintentionally, simultaneously popped the top of their pop cans and started laughing. They passed the bag of pretzels and M&M's carefully, as Aria had stressed she did not want to wake up covered in chocolate and pretzel salt.

Aria sat mesmerized by the dancers, with a bit of a preference for the Black Swan, as Mila Kunis' character was much more edgy than Natalie Portman's character. By the end of the movie, when Natalie Portman fell back to her supposed death in the most pristine way possible, Aria was wide-eyed on the edge of the couch clutching her pillow.

As the credits began rolling, Aria looked to Mona with an expression best summed up as awe & confusion. Aria couldn't describe what happened, because there was so much suspense early on and once the pieces began falling together at the end, with a gradual understanding of Natalie Portman's psychosis, the final scene and entire premise of the movie was mind-blowing.

"We need to watch it again," Aria declared.

Very suddenly, Paige picked her head up off the back of the couch, hoping no one notice her snoozing. Lucky for Paige, Aria and Mona had been too engrossed in the movie to pay much attention. "I'm beat," Paige replied, and all of a sudden Aria and Mona remembered the kick-ass game Paige had played earlier in the day and looked at the clock to see it was already 11:42 pm.

"Bed sounds like a good plan," Mona agreed with Paige.

"Well, I guess. You two can brush your teeth and change into PJs down here and I'll head upstairs to brush my teeth and get into my PJs, then we can decide on sleeping order arrangement.'

With that the girls all got ready for sleep. After sharing the sink to brush their teeth, Mona casually brought up Aria to gauge Paige's reaction. "I can definitely see what drew you to Aria on your first day here. She truly is one-of-a-kind. I'm also really glad to be part of your group, and hope I'm not too much of a third wheel."

"Oh, you're not a third wheel. It's just that Aria & I have been inseparable for the past 6 years and have developed some weird friend dynamics," Paige explained. "You're perfect," Paige went on, smiling ear-to-ear. Paige really was excited to have met Mona – whose personality struck her with a gravity nearly as strong as the pull she felt for Aria. Maybe it was the brown hair.

"Does that dynamic include you going along with anything and everything Aria wants?" Mona pushed.

"Aria has the most beautiful soul of anyone I've ever met. My heart broke for her that first day of third grade when I saw Alison DiLaurentis reduce her to tears, and I made a promise to myself to protect my new best friend's beautiful soul the best I could. Seeing Aria happy makes me happy, and if I can be the reason for her happiness, the joy in my heart triples," Paige explained somewhat wistfully. She was embarrassed to admit it, but she got the feeling she was wrapped very tightly around Aria's pretty little pinky.

"Wow, I sensed there was something more than friendship between you two but you just got hella deep on me," Mona replied to Paige's confession. "Let's get the pillows situated around the blankets," she quickly segued onto a safer topic as Aria bounded down the stairs.

"I want to sleep in the middle!" Aria yelled. Mona had no real preference, other than not between Aria and Paige, so she took the right side of the blankets and Paige took the left side. Aria squeezed in between and yawned deeply, contentedly. "I'm really glad you are both here – I had such a fun time tonight," Aria began as her speech quickly devolved into gibberish as she fell asleep.

"Good night Paige, good night Aria," Mona whispered quietly as she turned onto her left side facing away from Aria.

"Good night Mona," Paige whispered before turning her attention to the sleeping brunette form only inches from her body. "Good night sweet Aria," Paige whispered to her friend and kissed her forehead gently, before rolling onto her side to face Aria. Aria held a contented smile on her lips, which was the last thing Paige saw before nodding off to sleep herself.

…..

I hope you liked this chapter. Next we'll get to meet my take on Mona's family – which has always been a bit of a mystery throughout the show. Please review and let me know what you think!


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